PAPER INSTRUCTIONS
The paper should have the following sections:
Introduction: Begin the paper with a brief overview of the general topic of gratitude and character strengths. Briefly outline the four main subsections of the paper.
Main Paper: Divide the main part of the paper into four subsections, each tackling one of the four writing prompts below.
Write a letter of gratitude to someone who has played an important role in your life (e.g., parent, teacher, coach, grandparent). In your letter, describe in detail what this person did for you and how he/she has affected your life. After you’ve written your letter, decide whether to share your letter with the recipient. If you choose to share your letter, you can mail, e-mail, or hand deliver your letter to the recipient. You may also choose to read your letter out loud to the recipient in person, over the phone, or on Zoom/FaceTime/Google Hangouts.
Reflect on the experience of writing this letter. In your reflection, you may choose to answer some or all of the following questions:
Was it difficult to choose a recipient for your letter of gratitude? Why or why not?
How did writing the letter make you feel?
When you were writing the letter, did you learn anything new about yourself, the other people in your life, and/or your relationships? If so, what did you learn?
If you chose to share your letter: How did the recipient respond? How did you feel when sharing your letter?
Does this activity inspire you to find new ways to cultivate gratitude in your life? Why or why not? If it does inspire you, what will you do to continue to experience and express more gratitude in your life?
Design your own question to ask yourself!
Choose one journal article to discuss that uses an intervention to cultivate gratitude in other people. For this assignment. please choose one journal article to analyze from the following options:
Deng et al., 2019 – Counting blessings and sharing gratitude in a Chinese prisoner sample: Effects of gratitude-based interventions on subjective well-being and aggressionActions
Diebel et al., 2016 – Establishing the effectiveness of a gratitude diary intervention on children’s sense of school belonging Actions
Jackowska et al., 2016 – The impact of a brief gratitude intervention on subjective well-being, biology, and sleepActions
Otto et al., 2016 – Effects of a randomized gratitude intervention on death-related fear of recurrence in breast cancer survivorsActions
Wolfe & Patterson, 2017 – Comparison of a gratitude-based and cognitive restructuring intervention for body dissatisfaction and dysfunctional eating behavior in college womenActions
Wong et al., 2018 – Does gratitude writing improve the mental health of psychotherapy clients? Evidence from a randomized controlled trial Actions
In your own words, synthesize the main points of this journal article. Respond to ALL of the following prompts:
Describe the participants who received the intervention. Who participated in this intervention study?
Explain what happened during the intervention itself. What activities did the researchers ask the participants to complete in order to cultivate gratitude?
Identify the results of the study. What were the positive outcomes of the intervention? Were there any negative outcomes of the intervention?
Take the research-based VIA Survey of Character Strengths at this link: https://www.viacharacter.org/www/Character-Strengths-Survey# Links to an external site.. (Note: The survey is free to take; however, you will need to register for an account online.) At the end of the survey, download the “Free Character Strengths Profile”. On this profile, you will see all character strengths listed in order, from your strongest character strengths to your weakest character strengths. Share your top 5 character strengths. Reflect thoughtfully and critically on these results. In your reflection, you may choose to answer some or all of the following questions:
Where does gratitude rank on your list of character strengths? Is this where you expected it to rank? Why or why not?
Were you surprised by your top 5 character strengths? Did you realize that you had these strengths?
How do you currently use your top 5 character strengths in day-to-day life? What changes could you make to use your top 5 character strengths more often in day-to-day life?
Does your major or your projected career path make use of your top 5 character strengths? Why or why not?
Are there any character strengths that are not in your “top 5” that you would like to work on cultivating? Why do you want to grow these strengths specifically? What can you do to encourage the development of these strengths in your day-to-day life?
Design your own question to ask yourself!
Conclusion: Conclude the paper with a brief self-reflection on the most important take-home points that you learned about gratitude and character strengths and/or that you learned about yourself while writing this paper.
PAPER FORMATTING
References and in-text citations should be in APA format. The paper should be written in Times New Roman 12-point font with 1’’ margins. While there are no page mandates for this assignment, it is anticipated that most students will turn in a paper approximately 5 pages in length (double spaced, not including References). Papers that are shorter or longer will be accepted, but students should be cautious when writing papers that are extremely short or extremely long. Extremely short papers may not give students an opportunity to demonstrate their critical thinking skills, and extremely long papers may not give students an opportunity to demonstrate their clear and succinct writing abilities.